Several sources noted that Thompson--a personal friend of Rudenstine and the only one of Harvard's five senior political theorists to vote against the Honig case at the departmental level--had several connections with the tenure decisions.

Connolly's letter, which is written in a mocking tone, is addressed to Thompson and suggests that someone violated the sanctity of the tenure process and that Thompson should serve as "Special Investigator" into the case.

In addition, Berkowitz wrote an editorial last fall for the New Republic criticizing the mainstream liberal values of a book co-authored by Thompson and Gutmann.

According to one University official, the confidential nature of Harvard's tenure process has prevented any information that could explain the alleged improprieties from being released.

Both Thompson and Gutmann declined to comment on the tenure earlier this month, citing the confidentiality of the tenure process.

Several government department sources have suggested that the theories followed by Berkowitz, who follows Straussian ideas (a relatively conservative version of political philosophy) and Honig, who is a post-modernist and feminist scholar, prejudiced members of the generally mainstream liberal department against their candidacies.

In Retrospect

Looking back, the signatories of the letter of protest say they did the right thing but disagree as to whether the letter had any positive effect.

"I would do it again because it was right, but I don't think it was consciousness-raising. Since it didn't accomplish its end, the only other benefit that might have come would be for the president to have thought more about these issues," Mansbridge said. "I'm not sure that happened in this case.... [The letter] was a failure. I was quite depressed by the result."

When asked whether Rudenstine would be less likely to turn down the next well-qualified female scholar who comes up for tenure, Mansbridge said:

"I would hope so. I've become rather discouraged by this interaction."

Currently, five of the 28 tenured members of the government department are women.

Forty-eight of the 418 tenured members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, or 11.5 percent, are female. In the six years that Rudenstine has been president, the number of female tenured Faculty members has increased by 10, or 28 percent, while the overall number of faculty members has increased by only 6 percent.

Professor of Sociology Mary C. Waters said she thinks the protest might have laid the groundwork for future progress.

"The letter was an expression of our feelings about the situation, and we expressed it to the president," Waters said. "We had hoped he would change his mind, which he didn't do...[but] there are always benefits when colleagues take personnel decisions seriously and have frank discussions about those important personnel decisions."